The invention relates to a motor vehicle having a navigation system, which includes a graphic display unit, and by which accurate-lane destination guidance is made possible on a planned route.
Motor vehicles having such navigation systems have been treated in different fashions in the prior art. US 2007/0106460, for example, relates to principles of accurate-lane navigation, among other aspects. WO 2005/090918 A1 relates to improving the precision of driving instructions or to a camera-based lane detection. From U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,505 B2, a navigation system is known that has lane guidance for individual intersections by means of arrows and partly multiple routes. In particular, the defining or indicating of a lane is treated there on which an intersection is to be exited. In this case, several intersections may also be combined. WO 2004/111574 A1 describes a navigation system with the following capabilities: lane detection, output of lane changes in the case of a large number of lanes, connection with object detection for suppressing lane change instructions, and combined visual and acoustic instructions. EP 1 548 404 A1 relates to principles of accurate-lane route planning.
Current navigation systems available on the market partly also already comprise so-called lane assistants. Functionalities, such as “Junction View” and/or “Motorway Junction Objects” additionally assist the driver in finding routes and interpreting maps.
It is an object of the invention to create a motor vehicle having a navigation system which assists the driver in a further improved fashion.
This and other objects are achieved by a motor vehicle having a navigation system, which includes a graphic display unit, and by which an accurate-lane destination guidance is made possible on a planned route. A road map containing lane information is displayable on the display unit. Within or in superimposition of the displayed road map, the route is displayable accurately with respect to the lanes. In addition, a lane guidance display area is displayable, which is graphically set off from the road map and within which several lanes of a currently traveled route section are graphically represented and within which the necessity of a lane change is graphically displayed. A rating is determinable for the urgency of the lane change. This rating is graphically displayable in the lane guidance display area.
The invention permits a driver of the motor vehicle to visualize particularly the urgency of a lane change in a simple manner by which the diversion possibilities are reduced. In the case of the invention, the remaining display areas of an accurate-lane navigation can also be displayed to the driver in a simple and low-diversion manner because the visualization of the urgency of the lane change is relocated deliberately and in a targeted fashion into a graphically set-off display area.
In comparison to the above, the systems and processes known from the prior art still have various disadvantages. On the one hand, a precise-lane navigation is as a rule offered only for certain areas (such as intersections), and the transition between areas with an accurate-lane navigation and areas in which this information is not available is not dealt with, or a hard and therefore disturbing and distracting transition takes place between these areas. On the other hand, the driver is as a rule not provided with any overview or preview of lane change maneuvers to be expected in the future. Especially in the case of complex intersection guidance where several lane changes or turn-off maneuvers have to be carried out successively, the known systems and processes do not offer sufficient assistance. Finally, as a rule, the display is also not processed or designed in a targeted manner such that the driver is able to detect the urgency of an imminent lane change.
According to the invention, a lane guidance display area graphically set off from the road map is displayed on the display unit of a navigation system on which also and mainly a road map can be displayed. The road map display contains lane information and within which (or in superimposition on which) a planned route can be displayed accurately with respect to the lanes.
The graphic setting-off can take place, for example, by use of a border. However, the lane guidance display area is preferably situated within the display area of the road map, covering this display area, as it were, in part. In order not to cover essential information, the lane guidance display area is preferably situated at the margin of the display area of the road map.
Within this lane guidance display area—in the following, also called “guidance element”, several, preferably all lanes, that can be traveled in the current driving direction of a currently traveled route section are graphically represented, for example, by way of an essentially rectangular top view on a short part of the route section. Such a top view can, but must not be further developed photo-realistically. In the lane guidance display area, it is preferably indicated which of the several lanes are currently being traveled in (actual lane), for example, by overlaying a vehicle symbol in the representation of this lane in the lane guidance display area. It is preferably also indicated in the lane guidance display area which of the several lanes should ideally currently be traveled in (according to the accurate-lane destination guidance) (desired lane or optimal lane). This can be done, for example, by coloring the representation of this lane in the lane guidance display area. If the actual lane and the desired lane deviate from one another, the necessity of a lane change is graphically displayed to the viewer by the discrepancy in the display (for example, the vehicle symbol is not in the colored lane).
In addition, according to the invention, a rating can be determined for the urgency of the lane change and can be graphically displayed in the lane guidance display area. In the simplest case, here the preferred case, the rating of the urgency can consist of several discrete steps (particularly two steps, but also advantageously three steps). The rating of the urgency may, for example, depend on the distance between the current position and a forward turn-off point. The vehicle speed can also be taken into account.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the rating of the urgency can be displayed by a colored design of at least one graphic element of the lane guidance display area. For example, an increased urgency can be visualized by changing the color design of the above-mentioned coloring and/or of the above-mentioned vehicle symbol.
According to an embodiment of the invention, which can be used as an alternative or in addition, lane information, an accurate-lane route (in contrast to an inaccurate-lane route) and/or the lane guidance display area are displayed only when a certain map scale is set or when there is a falling below a certain threshold of the map scale.
According to an embodiment of the invention, which can be used as an alternative or in addition, several lanes are marked as being optimal in the lane guidance display area, if necessary, particularly when the accurate-lane route computation computes only slight differences with respect to the corresponding lanes.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.